Dated: January 2007

General Conditions of Public Sale

Placement of bids implies acceptance of the following conditions:

1. The auction will take place voluntarily and publicly against highest bid and immediate payment on the basis of the valid German Rules for Public Sales. The auction is held in name and for the account of the auctioneer. The auctioneer reserves the right to withdraw, recombine or divide lots. In controversial cases, a lot may be reoffered.

2. Written bids received before the auction will be handled in strict conformity with the client's interests: They will be ex-ecuted one increment above the second highest bid, even if the bid is higher than that. With unlimited bids (e.g. "at best", "at any price") the auctioneer will bid up to ten times the starting price. The bidder is bound by his bid until four weeks after the auction date.

The auctioneer reserves the right to exclude persons from the auction without giving any reason. Also, the auctioneer ist not obliged to consider bids which do not reach the start price.

3. The auctioneer receives from the buyer a commission of 20% of the hammer price for each lot purchased, additional the cost of postage and handling in the case of dispatch (at prime cost), an insurance fee of 1.25‰ of the invoice amount. Also, Value Added Tax (currently 7%) on the hammer price, commission and costs will be invoiced separately. This does not apply to foreign customers when the goods are dispatched by HBA to foreign countries (exception: customers living in the European Community).

4. Bidders are obliged to take over the lots knocked down to them. Anyone bidding on account of a third party will be liable as a debtor on his own account in addition to that third party. Delivery of the lots purchased is at the buyer's cost and risk. Mail bidders are invoiced in advance. Until the complete payment of the auction invoice has been made, the stamps remain the property of the auctioneer. The buyer has no right to request delivery of any lots until payment has been made in full.

If payment is delayed, the buyer's rights regarding the sale will cease 14 days after receipt of the invoice. If the buyer fails to pay promptly, the auctioneer is entitled to charge a one-time additional fee of 2% of the invoice amount for the delay in addition to interest on arrears. Instead of asser-ting his claims by legal action, the auctioneer is also entitled to sell a lot privately without further formalities or previous notice or to put it up for auction again. The defaulting buyer will be held responsible for any deficit in such subsequent sale but has no claim on a possible profit. Unless payment has been made in full, he is not admitted to any further bids.

5. Collections, accumulations etc. cannot be the subject of any claim. Claims relating to single lots must be made within 14 days of receipt. Such lots may not be altered in any way. This applies, in particular, to the sealing of the plastic foils containing the stamps. Only stamps which are clearly established as forgeries may be marked as such by members of the Bund Philatelistischer Prüfer (BPP; Association of Philatelic Experts). In the case of complaint, the auctioneer is entitled to require the buyer to obtain a written expertise substan-tiating the claim from a recognized expert of the BPP or the A.I.E.P. The buyer must inform the auctioneer in advance of his intend to have the lots expertized. This does not exempt the buyer from his obligation for immediate payment. In the case of a justified complaint, possible fees for expertization and related expenses will be refunded.

As a matter of principle, floor bidders purchase lots "as in-spected". They may only complain about hidden defects. The same applies to purchases made by bidders' representatives or auction agents. Stamps that have been inspected beforehand are bought, not "as described", but "as inspected".

Descriptions such as "superb", "superb in every respect" etc. are subjective assessments made by the auctioneer. They are not to be taken as statements of fact and cannot serve as reasons for complaint. The term "superb", for instance, is used to describe faultless average quality to which Michel catalog prices apply. Stamps described as "very fine" or "fine" may show small faults. If the value of an item is deter-mined by its cancellation, faults unrelated to that cancella-tion cannot serve as legitimate reasons for complaint.

6. Any kind of claim against the auctioneer or the vendor are barred by the statute of limitations after 3 months from the first day of the calendar month following the month the auction was held.

7. As far as legally permitted, the place of jurisdiction for all parties involved as well as the place of performance is Hamburg.

8. These conditions of public sale shall apply analogously to the sale of lots with fixed prices and of unsold auction lots.